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Mariners set club spring record with 58 homers

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Smoak's solo shot 0:38

3/30/13: Justin Smoak blasts a solo home run to deep left field to knot the score at 2 in the top of the fifth inning

By Greg Johns
/
MLB.com |

OAKLAND -- With home runs by Kendrys Morales and Justin Smoak in Saturday's 4-3 victory over the Rockies in Salt Lake City, the Mariners finished their spring with a club record 58 homers. They hit at least one long ball in 32 of their 33 games and led all Major League clubs this spring.

Only one MLB team in the past 20 years hit more spring home runs, with the Cubs ripping 62 in 1999. That club wound up 14th in the Majors in homers during the regular season, led by Sammy Sosa's 63, after he hit 12 in the spring.

Left fielder Michael Morse didn't go deep in Saturday's game, his 0-for-2 day leaving him at .357 for the spring. But Morse led all Major Leaguers with a 1.332 OPS and nine home runs, the most by any Cactus League player since Barry Bonds hit 10 for the Giants in 2003.

Morse also hit nine homers in the spring of 2011 for the Nationals before totaling 31 in the regular season.

Morales, the other primary power hitter acquired in the offseason, cranked his seventh home run of the spring in the fourth inning and Smoak added his fifth in the following frame. Morales finished the spring tied for the fourth-most homers in either the Cactus or Grapefruit leagues.

While the Mariners played more games than usual this spring, their home runs per game average of 1.76 was also a team record, breaking the 1.59 mark set in 1999.

Manager Eric Wedge is pleased with the direction of the entire offense heading into Monday's opener against the A's.

"We've got some good young hitters that are getting better and some veteran hitters that are proven," Wedge told reporters in Salt Lake City. "When you put it all together it's a nice mix for us and you saw a little bit more of that today."